California The design and importance of long-term ecological studies: analysis of vertebrates in the Inyo-White Mountains

Reviews the importance of duration in the design of studies of wildlife-habitat relationships. Long-term studies are especially suited to examining slow processes, rare events, subtle processes, and complex phenomena. Four major alternatives to long-term studies (retroactive studies, substitution of space for time, use of systems with fast dynamics as analogues for systems with slow dynamics, and modeling) are discussed. A suggested design for a long-term study of small vertebrates is presented, including preliminary data from the Inyo-White Mountains of E California. -from Author

The design and importance of long-term ecological studies: analysis of vertebrates in the Inyo-White Mountains, California Academic Article